Presidential candidate Rick Santorum made some controversial remarks on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, saying former President John F. Kennedy's speech about his Catholic faith made him want to "throw up," and that President Obama is a "snob" for saying that everyone should go to college.

Kennedy said, in his Sept. 12, 1960 speech about his Catholic faith, that "the separation of church and state is absolute."

"I don't believe in America the separation of church and state is absolute," Santorum told host George Stephanopoulos. "The idea that the church can have no influence or involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country. This is the First Amendment. The First Amendment says 'free exercise of religion,' that means bringing everybody, people of faith and no faith into the public square. Kennedy for the first time articulated a vision saying faith is not allowed in the public square."

"That makes you want to throw up?" Stephanopoulos interrupted to ask.

"Absolutely," Santorum replied, "to say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live in that says that only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case? That makes me throw up."

Santorum also tied Kennedy's ideas to the Obama administration's birth control mandate, which would require some religious institutions to provide health care coverage for birth controls even if their religious teachings are opposed to them.

The mandate, Santorum said, is government "imposing" its values on religion, "which, of course is the next logical step when people of faith, according to John Kennedy, have no role in the public square."

During the show, Stephanopoulos asked Santorum to explain a comment he made on Saturday while in Michigan about Obama and education. In a speech on Saturday, Santorum said, "President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob. There are good, decent men and women who go out and work hard every day, that put their skills to test, that aren't taught by some liberal college professor."

On "This Week," Santorum, whose campaign is focused on blue collar workers, said there are many whose desires and aspirations do not include going to college. To say that college should be everyone's goal, "devalues the tremendous work of people who don't go to college and don't want to go to college," Santorum explained.

Santorum also complained about a liberal bias on college campuses. He added that conservatives are ridiculed on college campuses and he personally experienced this as a student at Penn State.

"I've gone through it. I went through it at Penn State. You talk to most kids who go to college who are conservatives and you are singled out, you are ridiculed."

Santorum also said he heard a statistic from a few years ago in which 62 percent of students who enter college with a faith commitment leave without one.

"You make it sound like there is something wrong with encouraging college education," Stephanopoulos complained.

"No, not at all," Santorum responded, "but, understand, we have some real problems on our college campuses with political correctness."

Last September my Knights of Columbus Council sponsored a 10th Anniversary Day of Remembrance at our Parish. After ceremonies at the two city halls of the cities we serve. Dignitaries held a Procession to our Parish for a Blue Mass and a Pancake Breakfast for 1st responders. You guessed it. A local Rabbi complained that this was a violation of the “Separation of Church and State”. Both city halls responded that the Blue Mass is a KOC tradition of supporting Fire and Police departments and were INVITED by the council. It was suggested that if the Rabbi wanted to participate by having a portion of the day at his Synagogue the city would be glad to attend. It was also part of an overall Day of Remembrance in which other groups sponsored other events during the day.

Last September my Knights of Columbus Council sponsored a 10th Anniversary Day of Remembrance at our Parish. After ceremonies at the two city halls of the cities we serve. Dignitaries held a Procession to our Parish for a Blue Mass and a Pancake Breakfast for 1st responders. You guessed it. A local Rabbi complained that this was a violation of the “Separation of Church and State”. Both city halls responded that the Blue Mass is a KOC tradition of supporting Fire and Police departments and were INVITED by the council. It was suggested that if the Rabbi wanted to participate by having a portion of the day at his Synagogue the city would be glad to attend. It was also part of an overall Day of Remembrance in which other groups sponsored other events during the day.

If the left were sincere about a “wall” of separation between church and state, it would be less objectionable. (I would note as an Orthodox Christian, some of us Christians actually like the Supreme Court decision banning state-sponsored prayer in schools, as it was only that decision that put a stop to U.S. government policy of forcing Orthodox Christian native Alaskan children to attend boarding schools where government-sponsored efforts were made to convert them to protestantism.)

Walls don’t move. Unfortunately, the left’s”wall” is more akin to a bulldozer blade, than to a wall, with the state is driving the bulldozer, and pushing the church out of whatever space the state fancies occupying, as the Obama abortifacient mandate shows.

13
posted on 02/27/2012 1:11:34 PM PST
by The_Reader_David
(And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)

I think separation of church and state is absolute in institutional sense. Church or clergies don’t have any ex officio seats in any formal type and level of political institutions, unlike in British, for instance, where the CoE still has official ties with the state. I wonder if that’s what Kennedy had in mind. Santorum talks about individual involvement of religious people in political affairs, which covered by the 1st Amendment. This should not be even an issue, but liberals often blur the line. If a Republican candidate gives speech in a church, they cry about the separation of church and state. Ignoring the regular appearances of Democrats in Black churches.

14
posted on 02/27/2012 1:14:23 PM PST
by paudio
(Newt pissed on conservative principles, but we need him to beat 0bama so we look the other way...)

"Is it the business of government to IMPOSE its view of morality on citizens? This question needs to be asked because government IS already doing it."

That's exactly right! Government can't operate without a moral view. Government is going to impose it's view, whatever that is, for better or worse. The alternative is Somalia where there is no government.

Our secular government is imposing it's moral view on us. We can't talk about God in schools, Catholics have to perform abortion, Christians have to provide contraception, ....etc.

“RE: But it isnt the business of government to make people morally upright.”

“Is it the business of government to IMPOSE its view of morality on citizens? This question needs to be asked because government IS already doing it.”
__________________________________________________________

This is precisely why God’s inspired Government (and our Constitution), expressly forbids Goverment from interjecting into more than a handful of issues. Because the pendulum ALWAYS swings the other way. If people try to use government to enforce morality (beyond crimes/harm against other people), they are overstepping God’s bounds. And eventually the rationale the use for restricting people’s freedoms are used against them. Either extreme is always the abridgement of freedom, whether it’s for “our own good” on the “right” or the “left.” Good government butts out of peoples lives, and lets them face the consequences. Children out of wedlock, scrape by in poverty. Rampant sexual behavior, get diseases. The problem is that we don’t allow people to make bad choices and face the consequences. That’s the ONLY thing that teaches people.

And yes, it’s wrong for goverment to impose its view of morality upon the people. It’s NOWHERE in the Constitution. States may vary on that, as I do not know the States’ Constitutions.

Is the government wasn’t doing unconstitutional and/or immoral things things like taxing income, and interfering in a persona’s right to house, employy etc. whomever they want, then we would have the issues of who’s married and who’s not, etc. etc. I am all for a Federal Amendment for a definition of marriage, but without an amendment, and that’s a strict and near unanimous process. All these things are outseide the proper role of government.

This is precisely why Gods inspired Government (and our Constitution), expressly forbids Goverment from interjecting into more than a handful of issues. Because the pendulum ALWAYS swings the other way. If people try to use government to enforce morality (beyond crimes/harm against other people), they are overstepping Gods bounds. And eventually the rationale the use for restricting peoples freedoms are used against them. Either extreme is always the abridgement of freedom, whether its for our own good on the right or the left. Good government butts out of peoples lives, and lets them face the consequences. Children out of wedlock, scrape by in poverty. Rampant sexual behavior, get diseases. The problem is that we dont allow people to make bad choices and face the consequences. Thats the ONLY thing that teaches people.

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